Invisible
by Helen Nurse
Summary: The Doctor accidentally leaves behind his and River's daughter Elaine in 1996 London just as she began to regenerate. She hid herself like her father had done on many an occasion by turning herself into a human child. She was found and adopted by a kind man who raised her along with her honorary uncles. Sherlock time is back about ten years.
1. Prolog

I pushed him away from the crack, crying out in pain as it tried to break apart my timeline and erase it from history. My pocket watch opened and I remembered my past as I began my life again.  
I screamed "No More!" and the world around me seemed to explode into flames. I saw him turn away before I regenerated. I wanted to become young and someone he could love as a father to a daughter. Not that he knew we were that already.

* * *

The Doctor turned and walked away from Elaine, his daughter. She'd pushed him away and screamed as she felt her timeline being erased, bit by bit. He felt the crack close permanently and felt an overwhelming sense of loss as he walked into his TARDIS. He closed the doors with a reluctant sadness and charted a new course through the vortex to meet with his wife River and explain what happened to their daughter.

He didn't see the little girl in the scraps of a shirt and a silver necklace around her neck in the shape of a tiny pocket watch. She looked to be about two human years old, a toddler with china blue eyes and golden blond hair that fell to her hips. She whimpered as she saw her father leave her on Earth in the year 1996.

"Daddy, come back! I'm here!" she wailed, but her father didn't come back. She sniffed and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of the tattered shirt she wore. She undid the clasp on her necklace and held it in her hand.

She opened her watch and programmed it to send out a signal to bring the correct TARDIS to where she was when she turned 18 human years of age. She then programmed her watch to turn her into a human. She closed it and after putting the necklace back around her neck she closed her eyes and let it fall back onto her neck. She knew that she'd return when her father needed her the most. She screamed in pain as it rewrote her DNA and sealed her Time Lord consciousness inside the watch. When she fainted, she didn't see the man that heard her scream run over to her and hold her close. She didn't know that she was going to be the daughter of the DI of Scotland Yard Gregory Lestrade.


	2. Dad and Uncle

"Helen! You're late for school, get down here!" Greg Lestrade yelled to his youngest daughter.

"I'm coming! Don't worry, I'll be fine." She raced down the stairs with her grey and red uniform on with her bright blue bow askew holding her golden hair back from her face. Her golden wire rimmed glasses were perched on her nose at an odd angle, giving her the appearance of having tumbled down the stairs instead of walking down them.

Greg shook his head at the antics of his adopted daughter. When he'd brought Helen home that first night, he'd caught his wife with another man. He moved out the next month and took Helen with him, since he'd adopted her as soon as he was legally able to. Before he and Helen could find their own flat Sherlock allowed them to stay at 221 B Baker Street in John's old room since he'd been married to Mary.

Eventually, after a few moves to different flats, Greg decided to approach Sherlock about doing a flat-share for 221B like he had with Watson. Sherlock later confided in Greg that he only agreed because Helen who was about three at the time said 'Pwease,Unca Serwok? I'ww be reaww qwiet, and so wiww papa, wiww you wet us stay?' and stared at him with the largest pair of blue eyes he'd ever seen as she sucked on the ear of the bunny Sherlock had bought he as a Christmas present the year before.

Sherlock put together his 'niece's' lunch and wrote on it 'Deduce before opening. No cheating, little sleuth'.

He placed it next to her backpack and pulled out from his pocket some makeup and a hair brush. He took one look at her and said "Straighten those clothes, take that bow out of your hair, and remove your glasses. You are not going to school looking like that!"

Helen sighed, but did as she was told. Her uncle Sherlock would make her do it one way or another. He quickly applied some touch-up to her face and brushed her hair before re-tying it with the ribbon and placed her glasses on her nose straight. he pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and studied his handiwork.

He held back a tear as he noticed how grown up his niece was. he cleared his throat and said gruffly "You better not keep uncle Mycroft waiting too long." he paused a moment before hugging her "Have a brilliant day at school."

Once Sherlock and Greg saw her leave in one of Mycroft's cars, Greg lightly punched Sherlock's shoulder "Softie." he teased.

Sherlock murmured back as he watched the car drive off "Maybe you're right. I'm losing my touch. Shall we go to the station together or should I wait until you have a murder for me to help you with?" Sherlock flashed Greg one of his more dazzling smiles.

"Wait here, Sherlock. I don't want the office having any more rumors about us than there already are." Sherlock snorted in derision. "Must I remind you about social manners again?"

"Dull." Sherlock flopped onto the couch and sighed, wishing that it was the week-end and that he could help Helen with her homework and take her to different places in London.

Greg laughed and went to his room to get into his uniform. He was happy with his life. He lived with a man he considered to be a brother, and a perfect daughter. He never imagined that his life could be as good as this. He only hoped it would stay that way for as long as it could.


	3. Doctor and River

The Doctor was alone again. His daughter was dead, and there was nothing he could do about it.

He flipped levers and pushed seemingly random buttons as his wife River Song, aka Melody Pond, stared at him with a look of scorn and anger on her face. If he'd just left everything alone, then Elaine would have survived her first hundred years as a Time Lord. But no, the Doctor wanted to look at a crack, and killed their daughter. Not only killed her, but erased her from history.

The ship landed silently at the University River worked for. She turned to him and gave him one last kiss goodbye before saying "I have a mission at the Library if you want to come."

The Doctor walked into his work room and grabbed River's sonic screwdriver. He had analyzed it and built an exact working replica for her. He wished that he had more time with her before this. He ran back to her and gave her a smile and said "I might, But if you remind me I'll make sure that I'll be there. Here. In case I can't make it, you should have this."

"Oh, Sweetie! You shouldn't have!" River threw her arms around the Doctor's shoulders and kissed him on the cheek before grabbing her rucksack and walked out of the TARDIS, the doors shutting quietly as the Doctor went back to the controls and set the coordinates to random.


	4. Meeting Helen

Helen Lestrade wasn't the popular girl in school, and she liked it that way. She'd sit in a corner of the library and read in between classes any book that she'd see except for thrillers and suspense books. For one reason or another, she felt as if she'd seen too much of both genres to be comfortable with it. Which was odd, considering that she 's only about eighteen.

Today was different though, she was going to meet Molly Hooper after she was finished with her classes. But on her way to Molly, she heard the sound of grinding coming from an alley. Then she saw it. The blue police box from her dreams. Out of it peeked a man in a tweed jacket wearing a collared shirt with a red bow-tie.

She walked over to him and said "Who are you?"

He looked at her and said "I'm the Doctor. Who are you?"

"Helen Lestrade."

"Has anything strange been happening here lately?"

"Nope." Helen shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh. Well then, I guess I'd better be off." the Doctor made a move back towards the TARDIS.

"Wait! Who are you, really?" Helen asked, studying the strange man.

"I'm the Doctor. Why am I still discussing this?"

"Because you need a friend?"

"No. I don't do friends. Not anymore. I've broken my hearts too often."

"Hearts?" She asked, stressing the plural.

"Yes. I am an alien with two hearts. Happy?" the Doctor snapped, irritated with being stuck talking to a school girl.

"Nope. But if that's all I'm going to get by talking to you, you're not as clever as I thought a man from the future would be." She smirked as she walked away, leaving him staring at her. She turned the corner and walked across the street to talk with Molly about the strange man she'd met.

* * *

The Doctor was stunned. How could a human guess that he was from the future? And why did he have that feeling that he knows that girl?

He went into the TARDIS and looked up Helen Lestrade. "Helen Lestrade... adopted daughter of Detective Inspector _Gregory Lestrade_. Goddaughter of _Sherlock _and _Mycroft Holmes_!" The Doctor ran to the controls and hopped to another destination.

* * *

Mycroft was seated at his desk in his private study when he heard the grinding noise coming from behind him. He groaned inwardly, cursing the fate that made him the official liaison with the Doctor and that damn sentient time machine of his. When he heard the doors creak open behind him he said irritably "What do you want this time, Doctor?"

"You have a goddaughter."

"Yes." Mycroft scowled as he saw the Time Lord sit on the couch opposite his desk.

"I met her today. She said I wasn't as clever as she thought an alien of the future would be."

"Serves you right." Mycroft muttered under his breath before looking up startled upon realizing the full import of the Doctor's statement. "What?"

"I met her today."

"No." the angry tone in his voice startled the Time Lord.

"Sorry?"

"Leave Helen out of this. If you take her as a companion, I will kill you myself. That is if you survive Sherlock's anger. He dotes on her, AND I WILL NOT LET YOU TAKE HER!"

"I just wanted to know who her real parents are. She's a genius. Like a Time Lord's level of genius."

"No one knows. Greg might be able to shed some light on how he found her, but that's it."

"Call him."

"No."

"I'll help you avert a political disaster concerning Harold Saxon."

"No. Go back to your wife, and leave what little family I do cherish alone."

"She's dead."

"I don't care. Just leave my people and country alone."

"Fine. But the TARDIS brought me to an alleyway near your goddaughter, and I need to know why."

"I. Don't. Care."

The Doctor scowled at the man seated behind his desk. "Fine." he snapped. "I've dealt with enough human geniuses for one day."

He went back to the TARDIS and went back to the alley where he started out that day. He saw her walk out with a short, pretty woman in a white lab coat. He shrugged and decided to read up on Helen Lestrade.


End file.
